RioRealblog cheated on Rio de Janeiro earlier this week, running off to São Paulo for two days and a night.

There were the constant comparisons: an art Bienal that didn’t hold a candle to the recent wharfside ArtRio fair, an unbeatable crunchy beirute sandwich, much cleaner streets and the surreal paulistano penchant for the upscale. How could anyone seriously name a building in the Jardins section of the city “Les Jardins des Jardins”?

And there was also an inspiring, imaginative breath of life: the launch of Pense Livre, a network to urge a rethink of Brazil’s drug policy. Policy debate is such a rarity here; though the launch was one-sided, it did throw down a useful and provocative gauntlet.

Brazil’s drug law changed in 2006, ostensibly to make distinctions between users and dealers that would be helpful for its justice and penitentiary systems. It seems to have backfired, say Pense Livre members, with police labeling many young black users from favelas as dealers. They can do this because the 2006 law doesn’t specify quantities of drugs to define who is who. It also increased minimum drug trafficking prison terms from three to five years.

As a result, the country’s drug trafficking prison population ballooned, up 118% from 2006 to 2010, according to an article in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper citing Justice Ministry data. Over the same period, the total prison population grew 37%, to almost 500,000.

He was dead by then

This week’s event consisted of brief testimonials from some of the sixty young leaders who make up the network, in a series of three panels. Former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who anchored last year’s pioneer documentary advocating drug decriminalization, Quebrando o Tabu [Breaking the Taboo], followed the panels with a (surprisingly) short speech.

Fernando Grostein Andrade, director of the film, told of a pre-interview with an armed young drug trafficker, already a father of six. “We asked him what his dream was,” Grostein recalled. “He said he wanted to be a dancer. We set a date to film the interview the following week, but he was dead by then.”

Other network members noted that legal and bureaucratic restrictions make drug research nearly impossible in Brazil; that Portugal and twenty other countries have decriminalized and seen no surge in drug use; that there are 1.5 million cannabis users (80% of all drug users) in Brazil, which points to a need for a regulatory agency; that prohibition creates more damage to society than drug use; that drugs are neither a problem nor a solution, but something that human beings consume and this should be collectively recognized; and that drug policy amounts to social control with racial undertones.

“Who benefits from the drug trade, who are the big fish? asked Miguel Lago, political scientist and founder of the digital mobilization NGO, Meu Rio. “Who benefits from the current drug policy? We don’t know!”

Those who support drug decriminalization point to Prohibition in the United States, saying its repeal helped to regulate alcohol consumption and reduce crime and violence.

It is quite something to imagine a Rio de Janeiro where cariocas tranquilly grow and smoke their own, with no more gun-toting dealer armies, or trigger-happy cops. Ideally, the city would become fully integrated, fully accessible and safe.

Or maybe the story will be that so many young black men were killed in Rio’s long undeclared wars among and against drug traffickers, that in the second decade of the second millennium few were left to father those who would roll the joints and raise the rifles.

No such thing as being poor enough, if you’re a cop

All of which makes one wonder what the militias– often consisting of off-duty or former cops and firemen– will be up to in ten years. Soon, they’ll be more easily investigated and brought to justice, by way of a new congressional bill. Still, wage and training issues, plus the swelling ranks of the Rio military police force, meant to grow from the current 44,000 to 60,000 by 2016, could provide eager recruits for the still-poorly regulated transportation, bottled gas, cable tv and other businesses run by paramilitary gangs.

15 Responses to Drug decriminalization would remap Rio de Janeiro

The drug war in the U.S. is a monumental waste of public funds; contributes to a rate of incarceration that is the highest in the world; is racist; and ruins the lives of countless struggling families. It is only waged because of politics. I don’t feel unequivocal passion about many things, but I do about this issue. It’s madness. No doubt the social contours of the drug trade in Brazil are similar.

If I’m ever interviewed to serve on a jury, I intend to make two things clear: I won’t vote to send anyone to die, and I won’t convict anyone of a non-violent drug crime, no matter the evidence.

Julia Michaels

Declaraçâo de missão / Mission Statement

IS IT GOING TO LAST?

I want it to. And to this end I’ll deliver information, independent and objective, bilingual and multimedia, about the momentous transformation that began in 2008 in Rio de Janeiro.
Is it just a mask? In 2017, should we expect the BMWs to revert to pumpkins and the politicians to turn back into myopic rats?

A BLOG WITH AN AXE TO GRIND
I want it to last. I want the changes to be deep and real. I can see that the way cariocas are thinking and talking about favelas and their residents reveals new tolerance, concern and solidarity.
The more we know about what’s going on, the more we can contribute to the process, whether we are cariocas born and bred, transplants like me, onlookers, investors, tourists, transients, or cynics.
I will give you links, original reporting, questions, ideas, images, sounds, reflections, answers and more questions. No bullshit. You won’t have to read between the lines. My only agenda is I WANT IT TO LAST.

This is Rio Real, a blog created in 2010 by Julia Michaels, an American writer, editor and journalist who has lived in Brazil for more than thirty years.
If you speak both languages, I suggest you read both texts. I’ll be providing more context in English and more detail in Portuguese.
We’re still pinching ourselves. Only five years ago you couldn’t walk in Ipanema and talk on a cell phone, for fear someone would snatch it off your ear. Now everyone has a cell phone, everyone walks and talks. You thought cariocas were a relaxed sort.
But only now are they finally starting to chill!
Construction is booming, favelas have an increased police presence (and more social services as well) rents and real estate are up, jobs and income are on the increase, education indicators are heartening, frozen yogurt is everywhere, health and sewage are getting serious attention for the first time possibly ever, the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas is being cleaned, new restaurants and shops are opening, Brazilians are moving here from other cities, the beaches are policed, drunk driving is almost nonexistent, the Olympics are coming, the metro is expanding and best of all, key parts of the city are safer than since just about any carioca can remember. Politicians are buddies: President Lula da Silva, elected in 2002, and then President Dilma Rousseff, after 2011; Governor Sérgio Cabral, reelected in 2010 and mayor Eduardo Paes, reelected in 2012, are working in concert to turn around the decadence that set in back in 1960 when the capital moved to Brasília.
But will it last, will the politicians persist and businesses invest?
Please tell me what you want to know about. Meanwhile, I’ve got tons of questions…